In my view, what SGML never had, and XML still doesn't have, is a
mechanism for disclosing the semantic intent of a document address.
When I mention an address, what am I talking about? In the absence
of a
characterization of intent, it's extremely ambiguous.

+1
I don't believe that "HTTP Range" cuts it, as putting # on the end of a
URI is not out-of-band, and still only gives two options (the resource
itself or the resource as a surrogate).
At one time I hoped topic maps would give us more of this.
Liam

HTML has it though: it's the content of the A tag.
<A href="address">what you can expect to find at the address</A>
-Mike

I have a sneaking suspicion that Steve didn't equate such a simple
interpretation with it Mike?

Yes, and I was only half joking. We often gin up complexity where a
simple solution already exists, and this conversation has that smell to
me, but it's too early to judge -- I'll step back and see where it goes.